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Key Initiative

Sustainable Transportation for Saint Paul Employers and Properties

Whether you’re an employer, property manager, or developer, Move Minnesota can help you provide cost-effective, sustainable transportation to the people and places that make your business run.

Local Partnerships and Scalable Solutions

The past few years have created huge changes for our region. People have an increased awareness of how their transportation choices impact our climate, support local business, intersect with public health outcomes, and impact our collective wellbeing.

As the capital of our state, how people get around in Saint Paul sets an example across Minnesota for what transportation can and should be like. Move Minnesota works in Saint Paul to connect people and places to transportation options that are healthy for our communities, our climate, and our economy. With over 20 years of experience, we provide scalable solutions to meet the needs of our local partners.

Our
Expertise

  • Move Minnesota is a trusted transportation resource. As the designated Transportation Management Organization for the City of Saint Paul, we’ve spent over two decades creating custom transportation planning and commuter benefits solutions for employers and developers.
  • We’ve worked with locations of all sizes: from the neighborhood coffee shop to a ten-thousand person campus. Whether you need a TDM plan for a site in development, or solutions for your existing location, Move Minnesota can provide tailored recommendations to make sure transit, biking, and walking help you meet your goals.

Thanks to our designation as the Transportation Management Organization for the City of Saint Paul, sites in Saint Paul can receive many of our services at little-to-no cost!

For Employers

No matter your size, what you do, or what you are interested in, offering sustainable transportation programs for employees, clients, or customers can help your organization.
From strategic workplace policies to secure bike storage and custom commute resources, Move Minnesota can recommend effective solutions that fit your needs. One of the first things that we do in working with employers is to gain an understanding of your current practices: reach out to us to start this process.

Benefits for Employers:

Employee Incentives

Both your organization and your employees have plenty to gain from supporting transportation options at your worksite, including:

  • An enhanced benefits package
  • Tangible and low-cost perks employees will appreciate
  • Improved staff morale and productivity
  • An environmentally friendly workplace to be proud of
  • Reduced need for parking and related costs
  • Effective traffic management

Tax Benefits

Supporting sustainable commuting options lets you take advantage of federal and state tax savings, including:

  • Corporate income tax credits (30%) for bus passes and vanpool expenses
  • Federal and state tax-free treatment of transit benefits, up to specified limits
  • Regional discounted bus pass programs

Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention

Eight out of ten employees consider the commute an extension of their workday. A stressful commute seriously impacts an employee’s sense of job satisfaction and can negatively affect employee retention. On the whole, people who walk, bike, and use transit report a much happier commute.

Employee Recruitment

The transportation network is an organization’s lifeline to labor markets. An efficient network plays a role in an employer’s ability to attract good employees and access new labor markets. Millennials walk, bike, and take transit significantly more than people their age did a decade ago, with 20% of millennials using public transit at least once a week and millennials as a whole less likely to own cars or have drivers licenses.

Productivity

“Traffic was terrible!” is an all-too-common talking point as employees arrive at work grumpy, stressed, or late. Traffic congestion is one of the top causes of stress of driving commuters—and as the Twin Cities region continues to grow, it will only get worse. Employees that arrive late to work or stressed from the long commute negatively impact overall productivity and the quality of the work environment. In contrast, transit riders often report enjoying their commute because they can get a jump-start on their work day, read the news, or enjoy a book. People who bike or walk arrive energized because of the active commute.

Land and Facility Costs

Parking facilities are expensive to construct and maintain, and reliance on parking affects an organization’s ability to support continued expansion. The average cost of a single parking space in a ramp was over $20,000 in 2019, and will only get higher. Surface parking lots, while cheaper to construct, see much higher maintenance costs related to snow and ice, contribute to water pollution, and take up valuable space.

Environmental Leadership

More and more businesses and organizations are showing leadership on environmental issues. Climate change and air pollution aren’t good for any of us—and vehicle transportation is unfortunately a leading cause of both. Employees and customers see that. In fact, polling shows that across the U.S. people are increasingly describing climate change as a crisis. By supporting and encouraging employees who take transit, bike, or walk to work, you are part of the solution. Employees and customers see that too.

We’d love to help your business increase transit, bicycling, or walking at your worksite.

Thanks to funding support from the US Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Council, many of our services are free to you. Contact our team for information about how we can help!

We are very pleased to partner with organizations like Move Minnesota to help provide effective and efficient transportation options for our employees. Utilizing sustainable transit options is not only a wise choice financially, but a responsible way to help care for the environment as well

Chris Passaro, VP of Human Resources
Comcast – Twin Cities

For Property Managers and Developers

Enhancing sustainable transportation options for tenants helps you as a developer or property manager, no matter your size. We’re here to help you navigate the planning and implementation process so you can maximize the benefits.

In the City of Saint Paul, Move Minnesota supports organizations who want to or must develop a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Plan as part of their building development process. As the City’s designated TDM Plan Reviewer, we help developers determine what to put in each new TDM Plan—and the sooner we start, the easier and more seamless the process is for you as a developer or property manager. Contact us to start this process! We are here to help you deliver on the goals outlined in your TDM Plan. We advise you on the most cost-effective and proven strategies—so that you not only produce results, but have programming that helps you recruit and retain residential or commercial tenants.

Our TDM Plan Guidance

As part of our TDM Plan Guidance, we’ll walk you through the seven requirements of the City of Saint Paul TDM Ordinance, and the different pieces you’ll need to assemble to meet those requirements. We’ll provide suggested TDM strategies and implementation, ensure your methodology and evaluation meets requirements, and go over how you can meet future compliance requirements.

We can also help you develop other tools, including mapping specific to your property, analysis of nearby opportunities, and other services.

Benefits for Your Property and Community

When you have an effective TDM Plan for your property, it improves the quality of life in the community around the property, helping improve interest and retention.

Attract and Retain Tenants: Transit, bicycling, and walking options are in demand in cities across the country. When you plan for and promote these transportation amenities, you can set your property apart. Tenants can benefit from cost savings and a more connected community.

Build Your Reputation for Sustainability: Vehicle transportation is a leading cause of both climate pollution and air pollution in Minnesota. Be part of the solution by making it easier for tenants to drive less. The choices you make at your building can encourage more people to make sustainable transit, bicycling, and walking trips where they live, work, and play.

Be a Good Neighbor: In a growing metro region like ours, car traffic can easily overwhelm city streets. Plan your development with transit, bicycling, and walking options in mind to help keep congestion down around your property. Make your new neighbors happy.

Reduce Infrastructure Costs: Cars and parking are expensive.They create unnecessary financial burdens for tenants, property owners, and developers alike. Updating your approach to parking and transportation will keep costs down for everyone.

Move Minnesota is the leading authority on sustainable practices for TDM plans in the City of Saint Paul.

Contact us to get a copy of our TDM plan guidance, and let us help you improve your TDM Plan for your next project!

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